Picots - more or less

I have been asked to make a lot of snowflakes, but I don't mind.  I have until towards end of next year to finish all of them, and getting paid to do it, too :).  Anyway, what better place to start than to tat all the snowflakes in my book, Tatted Snowflakes Collection.

Mel, who asked me to make them, wanted beads in all of them.  Usually, when adding beads to tatting I will make slight changes to the pattern, especially regarding picots, most of the times reducing the number of picots.  This is where I made an interesting discovery.

Picots are not only for joining different parts of tatting together.  Sure, they add some decorative elements to it, adding some flourish to the lacework.  While working on Mel's snowflakes, I realised that picots can define the shape of the tatting too, in relation to the negative space.

What am I talking about?  Here is one example -

This snowflake was the original one that I made for my book.  What I now see is a blot of rings with lots of picots jutting out all over the place.  Compare this to the one below. 

I have remove the picots that were crowding the centre.  Now the snowflake is more pleasing to the eye, don't you think so?

Here is another example

Again, there are many picots in this snowflake, not so much in the centre but all around the perimeter.  I have removed some of the picots and came up with this one below.

Just look at the negative space that was formed.  I think it is quite striking, if I say so myself, :).  I used the SCMR for the floating rings at the tips of the snowflake and got a more pointed effect as a result.  You know, this can be modified slightly to get some celtic effect in it.  What do you think?

This is going to be my last post before my long break.  So I am leaving you with this picture, something to whet your appetite in the meantime, ha ha ha .......

Bye for now!
Hingga berjumpa lagi! Auf Wiedersehen!  arrivederci! hasta la vista!  राम राम  I don't know how to say this one, :) tchau! au revoir!

Disclaimer - these are from Google dictionary, I hope the convey the right meaning, :)